


there's nothing left to lose

by scepticallyopenminded



Series: Alpha Stiles [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Stiles, Gen, Human Alpha Stiles Stilinski, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Not Canon Compliant, if that freaks you out, kind of, there is talk of coming back from the dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2015-01-24
Packaged: 2018-03-08 20:04:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3221678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scepticallyopenminded/pseuds/scepticallyopenminded
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“This probably means that there may be very powerful witch after you,” Cora says, glancing around and eyes landing on Stiles, “The whole pack. It’s our guess that the omega would’ve taken out either Derek or Scott, whoever they encountered first, and probably if Lydia had not taken them out they would’ve gone immediately for Scott.”</p>
<p>“It seems systematic,” Orion continues easily, “Take down the alpha and the entire pack is unstable. A leaderless pack falls apart easily, and nobody can adjust to being alpha that quickly. This is not the first time some of those in our pack have seen this type of behavior.”</p>
<p>“And without an organized pack, attacks are easier and entire packs can be broken swiftly. Normally, alphas are hard to take down when they have packs, especially big and strong ones. Which is why the rest of the pack is gone after first in usual cases. But with the spell, with the magic, taking out an alpha is much easier,” Cora finishes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	there's nothing left to lose

**Author's Note:**

> title from "Believe Me I Believe" by Anya Marina
> 
> **edit 1/2/2017:** gahhhhhhh editing this is actually kinda good but also kinda frustrating mannnnn

It takes a few moments before anyone says anything, letting the news sink in. It ends up Boyd who breaks the silence first.

“You can?” He sounds hopeful, but guarded.

“No,” Stiles finds himself saying at the same moment that both Lydia and Allison say the same. A second later Erica and Isaac are wolfed out, growling at Stiles, Malia tensing behind them and eyes glowing blue. Cora’s watchful eyes turn to a hard glare, and Kira’s expression is pure shock. This time Stiles voluntarily flashes his eyes, his control barely yet somewhat better than that morning, letting out a smaller, human growl back. Erica and Isaac immediately duck their heads in submission, but everyone’s scowl stays in place.

“Some of you weren’t around when Peter used me to come back from the dead, but it wasn’t _good_ , it was terrible, and I won’t let that happen to anyone else,” Lydia speaks up, and Allison next to her nods.

“Even with _consent_ to use someone that way, it’ll be messy. And it’s part of the code – even the reformed one – that what’s dead stays dead, supernatural and human alike.”

“We should at least hear them out,” Kira says softly, and Stiles looks over to her; her face is sadder than he’s ever seen before, mouth downturned and brow scrunched, determined yet terribly depressed. She and Derek had gotten quite close over the years, and Stiles remembers a moment when he’d asked Kira about it. She’d laughed, looking thoughtful.

“He’s like an older brother, I guess,” she’d told him, shrugging, “He’s good to talk to and, um, he needs someone to talk to too? It’s harder with, uh, Isaac and Erica and Boyd, I think, because he turned them, and with Scott because the whole alpha thing. And I think with everyone else who was around when he first came back to Beacon Hills because, he said, you’ve all seen him at his worst. I haven’t, I can’t judge him for that stuff.”

Of course, now she’s hurting, and she hadn’t been around for Peter’s resurrection, or even no, when Derek first became the alpha and – Stiles knows Derek has grown an incredible amount since then, and beyond that had good _reason_ , but – what all had occurred in order for him to become Alpha.

“This does not seem like a good idea,” Stiles stresses, “I want Derek back just as much as anyone, but we’ve got to – ”

“You’re a bit biased, aren’t you?” Erica interrupts, “You became an alpha, and I’m assuming if we bring Derek back he’ll get his powers back?” She looks over to Cora and Orion, who’s been watching the proceedings with a strangely blank face but who now nods.

“That is what happened the other time that I tried this procedure.”

Stiles, for his part, is stunned and angry, and he turns to face Erica with his vision bleeding to a soft red.

“I didn’t _ask_ for this happen, for god’s sake! You really think I give a _shit_ about not being Alpha if it means Derek could be here? We all thought fucking _Boyd_ was going to be the next alpha! I’m sure you think he’d be a better one, we probably all do, and this was extremely unexpected.” He gestured to himself, sighing and letting his eyes bleed back to their regular color as Erica bows her head again, looking sufficiently guilty and backing from him a couple of steps.

“I don’t want to mess with life and death, okay? That’s the reason I’m unsure of this. You really think I care about or even want to be an alpha?”

There’s a moment of silence, everyone watching the two of them, wide eyes all around and Stiles can feel the mix of despair, guilt, grief, fear…the list goes on, and on, coming off from the entire pack. Erica continues looking down, the most timid he’s seen her in years and it hurts him, knowing he did that.

“No. I just, I want him back.”

“Yeah. Me too,” Stiles agrees, and there’s another slice of silence, everyone tense and, or, exhausted.

“I wouldn’t be,” Boyd eventually says, and at everyone’s confused looks clarifies, “A better alpha. I would’ve said yes immediately, screw the consequences. I don’t…think about the bigger picture like you do.”

Stiles stares at him for a moment as he stares right back, before nodding in thanks.

“That’s sweet and all, but us standing here arguing or agreeing that Stiles is a great alpha isn’t helping Derek at all,” Peter suddenly breaks in. He’s sitting on the edge of the balcony from the top floor, legs hanging off, watching them all. More than one wolf (and perhaps Stiles) growls at him as he speaks up, but he just continues to stare down at them, raising an eyebrow. Scott, quiet until now, watches Peter right back, then looks over to Stiles with a nod.

“I think we should hear it out. Cora said this is similar to another case, and he died from magical wounds, from an omega, not something that happens often. Maybe…we _can_ do something about it.”

“Scott…” Allison warns, but Stiles too is already agreeing.

“It’s nothing like what happened with Lydia and Peter, right?” he asks Cora, who he knows Derek shared the full story with. She shakes her head quickly.

“Completely different process, no one’s mind has to be invaded – ”

“Not entirely true,” Orion speaks again, voice low and even, “I will have to use the individual who took Derek’s powers.”

Everyone looks over to Stiles, who’s gaze has shifted to Orion, eyes sceptical.

“Right,” Cora continues, “But it’s nothing invasive, it’s kind of a light magic, just because the alpha will recognize Derek and it’ll help the spell along.”

“I still don’t think this is a good idea,” Lydia says slowly, holding her hand up to stop anyone from speaking, “But I think it’d be an idea to further hear what exactly would have to happen, the ins and outs, the magic of it, possible consequences – then we can decide.”

Everyone is giving their nod of agreement, looking to Stiles and Scott who are staring at each other.

“Yeah,” Stiles answers a moment later, “That’s not a bad idea.”

“Can you lay it out for us?” Scott asks Orion, who nods. Scott gestures to one of the open chairs, and Kira scooches to the ground in front of Erica, who’s on the couch, to offer her chair to Cora. They both sit with nods of thanks, Scott and Stiles, who’re still standing, gathering around to complete the circle in the living room.

“It is a very basic spell that I’ll have to perform,” Orion begins, “It is a counter spell to the one the omega had on it – “

“The omega was under a spell?” Stiles interrupts. They’d all known _something_ was off, omegas normally have a hell of a time simply injuring alphas, even those without packs, and it really should have been impossible for Derek to die from an omega, but they hadn’t known what exactly was off. Even after a thorough examination of the omega before they’d burned the body, nothing had seemed wrong. Stiles furrows his brow – his magic may not be very advanced, but he can normally sense magic and he hadn’t noticed anything.

“Indeed,” Orion grants, “There is a certain spell that only very powerful witches can perform, in which the omega is technically acting on their own fruition yet with very powerful magic on their side. The spell would have given the omega extreme killing power, the ability to kill anything it desires of any supernatural ability, with a few well-placed scratches and bites.”

“It imbues an omega’s claws and teeth with magic?” Lydia questions, her curious face on.

“Essentially,” Orion agrees, and Cora speaks up immediately after.

“That’s not all, though. There’s something else – another reason it would be a good idea to have Derek back.” She looks worried, and casts a glance at Orion before continuing.

“This probably means that there may be very powerful witch after you,” she says, glancing around and eyes landing on Stiles, “The whole pack. It’s our guess that the omega would’ve taken out either Derek or Scott, whoever they encountered first, and probably if Lydia had not taken them out they would’ve gone immediately for Scott.”

“It seems systematic,” Orion continues easily, “Take down the alpha and the entire pack is unstable. A leaderless pack falls apart easily, and nobody can adjust to being alpha that quickly. This is not the first time some of those in our pack have seen this type of behavior.”

“And without an organized pack, attacks are easier and entire packs can be broken swiftly. Normally, alphas are hard to take down when they have packs, especially big and strong ones. Which is why the rest of the pack is gone after first in usual cases. But with the spell, with the magic, taking out an alpha is much easier,” Cora finishes.

“But our pack has two alphas,” Stiles says, and both Orion and Cora nod in agreement.

“Which is something that perhaps the witch wasn’t aware of, but also maybe it was within their plan to take care of. And perhaps the omega was a kamikaze; they knew it was a suicide mission, but if they could get to Derek and Scott before you could kill them, they’d have succeeded anyway,” Cora tells them.

“But the omega’s dead now,” Allison points out, “So do we have to worry? What if the omega was acting on its own, perhaps paid a witch to perform that spell.”

“Perhaps,” Orion consents, “But a spell like that requires an extremely powerful witch. The chances of a witch that powerful acting on the wishes of a lowly omega are…not very high. There is a much higher chance that this is a witch who has some influence over said omega.”

“So why?” Isaac is the first to ask, “What do we have that this witch wants? Is it revenge?”

“We don’t know.” Cora shakes her head, sighing. “It could be territory, Beacon Hills is some of the biggest territory in California, and it’s very rich land in regards to magic and with the Nemeton here. It could be revenge, sure, but because we don’t know who this witch is we can’t know or even speculate that.”

“But we have to be ready for anything.” Stiles sighs, and he looks to Scott again, who’s looking at Orion skeptically and speaks up a moment later.

“So what’s the counter spell to this that might be able to bring Derek back?”

“It’s very easy and simply pulls the magic rom Derek’s body, allowing it to heal; because these injuries are a direct result of this magic, if my calculations are correct, he should be able to come back after his body has healed itself. I can do the spell myself, my mother was a witch and I have enough of her blood in me to allow me to do small amounts of magic. I simply need the alpha who took Derek’s power,” he nods toward Stiles, “And it might work better if you have a witch of your own in your pack?”

“Stiles is,” Malia blurts, and her eyes go wide as everyone looks to her, “At least, a little bit? He’s been training to become our emissary.”

“I have,” Stiles agrees, looking back to Orion, “I’m in some training to become a witch, though my power is very limited at this point. Won’t it be a problem if I’m both the alpha and the magic one?”

“It won’t be a problem, I do not think.” Orion’s expression changes for the first time from the calm, collected, blank one, to looking at Stiles interestedly. “But I am curious to know if this would in fact enhance the spell. It might help, even, that you are one and the same.”

There’s another pause before Erica says, “I think we should attempt the spell.”

Both Lydia and Allison look very worried, and Kira mildly hopeful. Isaac and Boyd have carefully neutralized their expressions, though he can see hints of anticipation in both their faces. Malia is simply staring between Scott and Stiles.

“I agree,” Scott eventually speaks up, turning to look at Stiles, “If Stiles is okay with it, with being part of the spell, this sounds like…a reasonable idea.”

“It doesn’t sound anything like what Peter did to Lydia,” Stiles replies, glancing over to Lydia and Allison. Neither of them say anything in response, but their expressions say more than enough – hesitancy, doubtfulness, some amount of fear. Stiles can feel it, too, can feel that everyone is feeling all those emotions – but there’s hope, too, enough that Stiles wonders if any of it is his, he can’t tell.

“I don’t know what harm could come from it,” Stiles continues, looking to Cora and then Orion, “I’m sorry, Orion, but I’m warier of you than anything. But if Cora trusts you, then so do I.”

Orion doesn’t seem offended at all, simply giving a small smile and nodding again, but Cora grins for real.

“I do,” she insists, “With my life.

There’s a moment, then Scott takes a deep breath, finishes with “Then let’s take you to Derek.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me at[asocialfoxpaw.tumblr.com](http://asocialfoxpaw.tumblr.com/)
> 
> look out for a bit of ooc-ness maybe?
> 
> by the way though I really do love this idea
> 
> **edit 1/2/2017:** yeahhhhhhhhhhh we're getting there.


End file.
